


What happened next

by TatianaMalfoy



Series: Call it what you want [2]
Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Angst, Arthur and Finn are sick of it, Cussing, Death Threats, F/M, John loves his family, Out of Character, Smoking, Strong Language, Tommy is on thin ice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28325337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TatianaMalfoy/pseuds/TatianaMalfoy
Summary: What happens when Arthur, Finn and John return to Birmingham and they inform the rest of the Shelbys of the new developments?
Relationships: Alfie Solomons/Reader, Arthur Shelby/Original Female Character(s), Esme Shelby/John Shelby, Tommy Shelby/Reader
Series: Call it what you want [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2074353
Comments: 9
Kudos: 33





	What happened next

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Welcome, welcome!
> 
> This has turned into a series, as it was to be expected. I hope you like this and I hope to see you in the comment section. Reviews=motivation so hopefully I'll see you there.
> 
> enjoy!

After leaving the Solomons home, there was silence in the car for a long time as Arthur drove them back to Birmingham. Each man was lost in his own thoughts, smoking and thinking of how they would explain this to the family.

John was the first to run out of cigarettes, so he sighed loudly and ran his hands over his face a few times before he started talking.

“So what are we telling them?”

“I’ve no clue,” Finn started, “but I have no intention of keeping this hidden. I am not missing out on that baby for the world.”

“That’s good and all, Finny boy and we agree with you. I was thinking more along the lines of how are we going to bring this up to Tommy,” Arthur cut in when he saw John was ready to put a bullet in their brother. Y/N would be most upset and they wouldn’t have that.

“He can fuck off for all I care. Do you not realize that had it not been for her, Solomons would have sent us packing? Fuckin’ hell, he still probably would’ve, had she not shown up there unannounced and entered the office.”

His two brothers agreed, still reeling from the fact that Solomons has agreed to help them. Neither John nor Arthur were kidding themselves into believing that Solomons was helping them from the goodness of his Jewish heart. No, while this would cost them a lot, it would have cost them a lot more money and a lot more blood had it not been for Y/N. That assuming that the fuckin’ Jew agreed to help them without her. But seeing how bored he was as he was looking at them, sitting across his desk and trying to convince him that branching out and combining his forces with theirs, neither one of the three brothers would have bet on it. That was a fool’s bet and the Shelbys always liked to win. 

“Pol is going to go through the roof! I can’t wait. Tommy’s ears are gonna ring for days,” Finn snorted before starting to laugh like a mad man. 

John looked at Arthur from the corner of his eyes and when he saw the ends of his moustache twitching, he gave up and joined Finn’s loud laughter. With all the shit that had been going on in those last few weeks, the brothers needed that. If their amusement came to their brother’s expense? Well…nobody in their right mind could say that Thomas Shelby hadn’t been asking for it. The only problem was that as had Y/N predicted, they were in danger of going down with him. John had his wife and the kids to think about; Arthur had his own wife and the baby they hadn’t told anyone about yet and Finn? Finn had turned into a stubborn bastard after she had left and refused to let himself and his other family members go down with Tommy out of pure spite. Y/N had warned them and while, for the most part, they had all distanced themselves from Tommy, they were still family. And nobody brought down a Shelby unless they were another Shelby. 

They laugh for a while, but then they settle down, a calm smile taking over their faces. Finn gives John another cigarette and after he lights it up, he looks between Arthur and Finn and says:

“She looks good, doesn’t she? Different somehow.”

It’s Arthur’s turn to snort. 

“Boy, ya gone blind or somethin? How couldn’t she be different? She’s married to a real war hero, they own London and have connections through half of this bloody country and all the way to America, she’s ready to pop out a kid and the bastard clearly worships the ground she walks on. Our Y/N has built a life far away from us, taking over the country and finding a poor bastard to torture for the rest of his sorry arse life and it was all done under our noses, without us ever hearing a whisper about her. She could have had us all killed in our beds with our pants around our ankles and we never woulda seen it comin’. Fuck yeah, she’s different.”

The next few miles pass in a heavy silence, only noises were their heavy exhales from their smoking.

“He’s going to freak when he hears about this,” Finn chimes in as they get close to Birmingham and they start recognizing the scenery. Since they didn’t know what to expect, they were all gathered in the old home in Small Heath and to say tensions were high would be an understatement.

“Let’im,” John says as he throws his stub out the window. Esme and Toria, short for Victoria, Arthur’s wife, were going to kill them when they got home. The smoke smell coming from their clothes was worse than it was after a night at the Garrison. “This shit has been a long time coming. Long before Y/N even left. Tommy has always been under the impression that he is the Lord’s gift to this family and we would all fall apart without him. And while he is my brother and I love him and I would kill just about anybody for him, doesn’t mean he ain’t a goddamn arsehole. Y/N tried to get through him for years and she tried to warn us, but we all thought she was cute and let it roll down our backs. Who’s laughing now?. Maybe if we had listened to her more, we wouldn’t be a step away from the gallows now.”

Arthur and Finn reply with silence. They agreed with John and while Finn didn’t really hold that much of the blame as he had been a kid at the time and always followed Y/N word as it was gospel, Arthur still couldn’t rid himself of the guilt that was filling his stomach like lead. 

Neither one of them says anything else for the rest of the ride, each thinking of their own sins.

Arthur stops the car in front of the house and they all get out of the car at the same time, like a scene cut from those pictures Ada liked to watch as a teen. And what a picture they painted. Three of the Shelby brothers, getting out of a car that cost more than half of the houses in Small Heath, crisp suits and fresh haircuts, hair strands falling in their eyes and looking like the bloody Horsemen. 

They don’t make it half way to the house before the door opens wide and a gaggle of kids comes pouring out, shouts of “daddy!” and “uncle!” filling the air. John and Ada’s kids kept rambling and climbing the three men as if they were their private jungle gym. The men indulged the kids and carried them up the stairs and into the house, were they spun them around in their arms before they sent them to one of the rooms upstairs to play. 

Toria, Pol and Esme watched the scene smiling; Toria’s hand resting on her tummy and her mind travelling a few miles into the future and imagining Arthur coming home and playing with their own little one.

As Arthur and John greet their wives, Finn rolls his eyes amused and turns to his aunt. “Gather everybody in the kitchen, Pol. 10 minutes!”

Polly, a little grayer around the temples and a few more wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, nods, before turning on her heels and shouting for Ada and Tommy.

Finn and his brothers and their wives walk into the kitchen and they all sit down, waiting for the rest to show up. Ada is first, hurriedly sitting down next to Finn and turning to face him, impatient to hear all about it. Before Finn could rebuff her and tell her to keep her knickers in place, the door opened and Polly walked in, Tommy close behind her.

The brothers all frowned. In the 3 days they were gone, Tommy seemed to have aged 10 years. He was pale, paler than usual that is, with violent and purple, almost black shadows under his eyes. His clothes were wrinkled and unkept and Finn was sure he was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the day they had left. His hair was hanging lifeless around his face and he was gaunt. By the looks of it, he had also lost a few pounds.

Finn loved his big brother. He did. Honest to God. The proof was in the deal he had tried his best to get Alfie Solomons to agree to. But looking at him now? This was the moment that Y/N had been talking about when she didn’t kill him all those years ago for putting his hands on her. This was the revenge Y/N wanted. And the best part? For Y/N that is, not Tommy. She couldn’t care less. There was no room for Tommy Shelby in her head, in her heart or in her home. Not anymore. All the space was taken by Alfie Solomons and he would go to his grave swearing that the same could be said about Alfie when it came to her. He could disembowel someone for daring to ask him a question and then turn around and take a walk with Y/N and their mutt and buy her pretty flowers and soft silks and expensive jewelry. 

“So? How did it go?” Pol asked when it was clear that Tommy wasn’t entirely present. He looked as if only his body was in the kitchen while his mind was somewhere else.

“He’s in,” Arthur says, his gruff voice filling the kitchen. 

Sighs of relief can be heard around the room from all of the women and Tommy sits back in his chair and lights up a cigarette. 

“Well done, Finny,” Toria beams, leaning across the table and squeezing his hand.

He squeezes her hand back, but snorts. “Oh no, Tori. It had nothin’ to do with me. If it were left to me, we would have been sent home just as we got there…and maybe even some extra lead in our bellies for the effort.”

“Whatchu mean? How did you get him to agree then?” Pol asks, confused.

“It wasn’t me. It was his wife,” John chimes from Esme’s neck and she pulls away, fury taking over her face and slapping his hands away from her thighs.

“Hey! What’s gotten into you, woman?!?” John barks, as he takes her by the back of her neck and makes her look at him. 

“What did you do, John? Do you want us to have to deal with Solomons as well when he finds out you fucked his wife!?? Have you lost your goddamn mind? I swear to Christ!”

John’s hand drops in surprise as his head turns to look at Polly as she finishes her tirade. Finn and Arthur start laughing, but Toria silences them both with a look that is eerily reminiscent of the woman in question.

John shakes his head and angrily snatches the pack of cigarettes that Arthur had thrown on the table.

“Believe it or not,” he says after he takes a drag, “I haven’t fucked all of the women in England. And you better watch that attitude, Esme. I love ya like the saint you are for giving me those angels and bein’ ma wife, but I'll take ya over ma knee ‘nd you ain’t gonna be sittin’ down properly for a while.”

Esme blushes as Arthur smirks at her and Finn laughs out loud. Even the women were cracking a smile. It had taken a while, but John had grown up. His family was everything to him so he didn't appreciate the insinuation. He wasn't about to escape the gallows only to be murdered in his sleep by his own wife.

“It’s Y/N,” Finn says all of a sudden, making everybody but John and Arthur turn and look at him as if he had started speaking in tongues.

“Whatchu say, boy? Speak louder,” Tommy barks, finally looking as if he had joined them.

Finn rolled his eyes. He had long since stopped finding Tommy dangerous. Right about the time Y/N had left.

“I said, it’s Y/N. She’s Alfie Solomons wife and the reason why he agreed to help us escape the noose you put around our necks, Tommy.”

Polly and Ada looked ready to cry. Toria and Esme were frowning, but slightly smiling. Esme had met her a few times, but didn’t interact with her that much. Toria had only heard stories but she knew she owed having her husband to this woman. Tommy? He looked as if he preferred the noose to this turn of events.

“How? Are you serious, Finn?” Ada asks him, not knowing if she should believe her brother. 

“Do we look like we're joking? Solomons would have sent us packing and drank a bottle of rum when the news of our hanging reached him. They’ve been married close to a year now…and she’s havin’ his baby too. Two more months she still has.”

Arthur looked like a proud father. Toria would have been jealous had she not heard the stories about Y/N long before she married Arthur. While she had grown up in the Shelby house, she had never entertained a relationship with any of the brothers. Or so people on the streets talked…

“It was a fluke she was even there. He hadn’t told her he was meeting us and she dropped by the bakery because she was upset with him for going to the bakery on what was supposed to be his day off. He had assumed he could meet us and go back before she got suspicious about his long “grocery shopping”. Joke was on him though. He’s still learning that that woman can smell bullshit from a mile away.”

The kitchen was silent as they took in John’s words.

“Send word to London, Pol. We don’t need Solomons!” Tommy breaks the silence and goes to sit up from the table.

Chaos ensues in the next few moments when Arthur sits up so fast he sends his chair crashing into the wall behind him and he pulls his gun out.

“Sit the fuck down, Thomas. I have let you have your say for years. We all have. It ends now. You either get your shit together or I end you right now, brother or not. Look around, Tommy. For fucks sake! You’ve always been like this. Impulsive and stubborn like a wild goddamn horse. But this takes the cake. You should get on your knees and thank your lucky stars that that woman is how she is. I would have put a bullet in your brain if I were her. But you did a good job at digging your grave on your own. And I’ll be damned if I let you take us with you. Look at John! And Esme. And your nephews and nieces upstairs. Look at Ada and her brood. Finn. Polly. My wife and my kid, Tommy! My goddamn wife! I’m gonna have ma own kid, Thomas. Ma own. Ma blood in his veins and mine to raise. I will kill you myself if I ever hear you say something like that ever again!”

It’s dead silence in the house as even the kids had heard Arthur shouting. Tommy was frozen in his seat, looking as if he was ready to bolt, reminding everybody of the horse Arthur had mentioned and Arthur himself was breathing heavily, rage pouring off of him and his gun pointed at his brother. Ada and Polly stood shell shocked. Polly even more so as she had known Arthur longest and she couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him this way. Probably never if she were honest. John had pushed his wife behind him so she would be safer if a fight broke out and Finn looked as if he was thinking of pulling his own gun to help Arthur finish the job.

“Surprise!” Toria whispers softly as she slowly walks to Arthur and puts an arm around his waist from the back and the other pushes his gun down.


End file.
